Remakes and remasters are a constant presence in the modern gaming industry, often seen as easy wins by studios for some easy cash. After all, if everybody loves Ocarina of Time, people will surely buy a prettier copy of it, right? Sadly, old games that could really use the facelift rarely get the opportunity, especially games that aren’t readily available.
Leaked images from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo have unveiled a proper rerelease that’s been a long time coming, namely a 30th anniversary remaster of Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger. The cult classic sci-fi space flight sim is coming back to store shelves with a myriad of remastered features, modern mechanical alterations, and a fresh method of playing this 1994 darling.
From Analogue Tape to Digital Dream
For the uninitiated, Wing Commander is an incredibly charming series of sci-fi flight sims from the 1990s. While combat took place in pixelated first-person constructions of space and planets, the cutscenes were a major draw, with full motion video starring Hollywood icons like Mark Hamill.
Wing Commander used FMVs, a largely abandoned practice in gaming that allowed live-action actors to be overlaid on digital backgrounds. This footage took up much of the game’s restoration effort, with the presenter mentioning a whopping 16,000 tapes making up the whole of the process.
Wing Commander is a perfect pick for the remaster treatment, and this special effort by EA is not only bringing the third game to modern store shelves, but also including bonus missions from the Kilrathi saga, community enhancement patches, and full 60FPS gameplay segments.
The community patch changes being implemented are so nice to see, as many cult classics have dedicated fanbases that have gone to special effort to make their favorite games as easy to pick up and play for newcomers as possible. Nightdive Studios’ fantastic treatment of games like The Thing and System Shock is a great example, marrying modern studio talent with changes born from literal decades of love.
Wing Commander as a franchise has sat on the back burner for almost 20 years, with its last release, Wing Commander Arena, a middling top-down entry trapped on the Xbox Live Arcade. If more cold-case franchises like Wing Commander can get the love that’s so deserved to them, who knows what other titles will finally get the spotlight?
A Win for EA
EA has been in hot water for quite some time now, between their long stagnant sports titles, their questionable treatment of Battlefield 6, and full-on abandonment some franchises have seen, a la Dead Space; they’ve needed a wing in their cap for a while. They’ve managed to pull their way back over the last few months with wins like Star Wars Zero Company, and this leaked rerelease of Wing Commander could do wonders.
The cult classic sci-fi space flight sim is coming back to store shelves with a myriad of remastered features, modern mechanical alterations, and a fresh method of playing this 1994 darling.
Electronic Arts is a very corporate-minded studio, costing them a lot of points with fans of their franchises over the years. With a concerted effort to show their old series some love, EA is taking the chance to win back some credit with their player bases step by step. It’s small, but its effort could potentially add up if they can maintain this momentum.
With Wing Commander’s return, we could see other fan favorites come back like Burnout, or a modern rerelease of Spore. All of these quirky, fun EA picks that have sat on the back burner for decades now have their doors newly opened, at least a crack. Sometimes, that’s all it takes for speculation to keep a fanbase happy, especially coming into announcement season like the Game Awards in the next few months.
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger
- Released
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December 1, 1994
- ESRB
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teen t
- Publisher(s)
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Electronic Arts
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